


Seven Minutes to Make a Monster

by Icka M Chif (mischif)



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Amputation, Cyborgs, Gen, Gore, Happy Ending, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Mad Science, Mad Scientists, Medical Inaccuracies, Nanites, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-07
Updated: 2012-07-07
Packaged: 2017-11-09 09:18:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/453874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mischif/pseuds/Icka%20M%20Chif
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Respiratory!” Phineas cheered. “Come on, Ferb! Breathe for me, Bro!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seven Minutes to Make a Monster

**Author's Note:**

> Between working with cadavers at the Bodies Exhibit, a handful of First Aid classes, talking with friends who are medics, 11+ years killing people off in murder mysteries, and google-fu, the facts are as accurate as I could make it. Including the bacon bit, which is totally true. That being said, it's sci-fi, take with a grain of salt.  
> Inspired by Techh's [Gore-iffic Macabre PnF art](http://iamdrinkingheavilyrightnow.tumblr.com/tagged/i+will+barf+on+everything+you+love) and a recent viewing of the National Theatre Live presenting Danny Boyle's Frankenstein.

“-Reducing body temperature by three degrees Celsius after restarting blood flow can increase the window of recovery without brain damage by almost double, which added to our other measures and allowing for a margin of error-" Phineas paused in mid-ramble to glance at his watch. "-Gives us approximately seven minutes to bring Ferb entirely back to life." 

Perry chattered, staring at Ferb's broken body. If anyone could do it, it was them. 

The last thing Perry had expected upon coming home was seeing Professor Poofenplotz's giant walking robot head go rolling through the neighbourhood, bouncing over the house and landing in the backyard before exploding. He hadn't really thought anything of it, Doofenshmirtz' inventions hit the backyard in a nearly daily basis and nothing harmful ever came from it. 

Which was why the heart-rending wordless cry had been such a surprise. It felt like Perry had teleported, one minute he was in the front yard, the next he was in the backyard, watching a heartbroken Phineas picking up his brother's burnt and mangled body and cradling it to his chest. Ferb let out a soft gasp, struggling to turn his head to face Phineas, eyes opening weakly, whispering something before falling limp. 

"No no nonono, Ferb! Ferb! Say something! What do you mean 'Prometheus'? **FERB**!" 

Perry had heard movement, glancing around them. Candace was screaming from the house that they were making too much racket, making her way to the back door. 

The ground shifted under their feet, a giant dark gaping maw opening up in the grassy lawn like an entrance to the underworld. Phineas stared at it, something that looked like determination falling over his face. "Gotta get him inside." Phineas declared, dragging Ferb's body towards the hole. Perry made a split-second decision, running over and grabbing Ferb's dangling feet, picking them up and helped Phineas bring Ferb's body to the shadowy entrance. 

There was a cart already waiting there, the right size for a young adult and they placed Ferb's body on it. The floor under their feet moved downwards, sealing the entrance behind them like it had never been, cutting off Candace's annoyed shouting. 

Ferb's body was a mess, the left side black and baked, a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of his torso. His left arm and most of his left leg were completely useless, bone peeked through the ruined charred flesh. It was doubtful he'd ever use them again, which would be devastating for the silent engineer. 

Phineas was strangely calm, rattling off the lack of pulse and breathing as if going through a check-list. "-Chances of recovering brain function after three minutes of heart failure exceedingly rare, primary objective need to focus on getting the circulatory system up and running... Need to compensate for lack of pressure due to blood loss..." 

Lights started coming on around them, screens showing scans of Ferb's body, outlining the damage done to it. The shrapnel had gone in just under the ribcage on the Ferb's right side, going through the liver, which was bleeding profusely. "Nanites." Phineas declared, grabbing the chunk of metal in his hands and pulling it out with a yank. A glowing white bottle descended from the ceiling via a metal tendril, Perry grabbing automatically and handing it to Phineas, who took it without looking. 

The bottle was opened, the entire glowing contents poured over Ferb's injuries, where they appeared to melt into Ferb's body, sealing it and leaving odd silver patches of 'skin' behind. 

"Back up." Phineas had pushed Perry back, away from the table. "Shock in three... two... one..." 

Electricity crackled across the table. Ferb's body twitched slightly, then several panels lit up, showing a weak but regular heartbeat. 

"Circulatory up and running, but there's still not enough pressure, he may crash again. But it's the the brain we have to worry about." Phineas had murmured, running his fingers across a screen, typing in commands, creating a field and dropping the temperature around Ferb's body as he rambled. 

Seven minutes. 

"-At least two more pints of Nanites." Phineas finally instructed towards Perry. "Can you handle that while I deal with his limbs?" 

Perry snapped a salute, spotting the nanite containers, tucked up in the wall, up near the ceiling. Metal tendrils grabbed two, pulling them down towards him. He grabbed them, hopping up onto the table, tail waving momentarily for balance as the chillingly cold table vibrated with what felt like a small electrical field. It felt like his feet had suddenly gone numb. 

"Just pour them on." Phineas said absently, fingers flying across the screen as the images he was looking at narrowed in on Ferb's left shoulder and leg. "They're medical nanites, they're programmed to repair or replace any kind of damaged tissue they find. Don't ask me how I know." 

Perry nodded and opened the first container. More metal tentacles dropped from the ceiling like vines, their glowing tips cutting Ferb's clothing away from the damaged skin. Perry pulled the scraps of fabric away, tossing them behind him as he put the nanites directly onto Ferb's flesh. The glowing liquid moved across Ferb's skin, hunting and finding any abrasions, where it puddled and sunk in, leaving silver streaks or pockmarks behind. Ferb's body quite literally began to fill out, the flesh smoothing over his ribs, giving it an almost doll-like appearance. 

Ferb's chest wasn't rising and falling. He wasn't breathing yet. 

The first container emptied and Perry tossed it away, grabbing the second and opening it. He carefully dribbled it over Ferb's face, the white liquid practically rushing towards the burnt side of his face, giving Ferb an almost mask-like appearance, like the Phantom of the Opera. It pooled in his eye sockets, seeping in through the tearducts. 

"Leg too." Phineas prompted him, pulling the last remains of Ferb's shirt away to get a clear view of his burnt shoulder. "Just the right, not the left for the moment." 

He nodded and quickly moved to the other end of the table, tugging the purple denim material away from Ferb's leg and liberally smearing the glowing nanties across the skin. There were no obvious injuries to the ankle, but the nanites swarmed to it, pooling around it before sinking in. 

There was a loud hiss of an energy beam firing and Perry glanced back to find Phineas holding Ferb's burnt and mangled arm, now detached from the shoulder. Metal tentacles took the severed arm, pulling it up towards the ceiling.

Burnt human flesh smelled like bacon, Perry realised with a queasy roll of his stomach. He closed his eyes for a moment, struggling to keep his previous meals down. Once he thought he was back under control, he cracked open an eye. 

Phineas was placing a skeleton of an arm, this one obviously cybernetic, where the flesh arm had been. A glowing container that looked more silver than white was lowered from the ceiling, Phineas taking it and pouring out the contents into his hand. It had the consistency of putty, which he then put at the shoulder joint, connecting the cybernetic limb and the flesh body. The silver spread down the metal arm, forming what looked like musculature to the elbow, and across the shoulder, where it joined with the nanites that were already on Ferb's chest. 

Skeletal metal fingers twitched. Perry fought a shiver. 

Phineas checked the screens and nodded, looking grimly pleased. "Leg next. Another container of nanites on the chest, please. Maybe see if he can drink some, get some into his system that way."

Perry nodded, hastily moved to Ferb's shoulder, taking a third container of nanties and poured it over Ferb's shoulders and chest, nanites flowing down both arms. There was a second hiss of an energy beam and Perry flinched, glancing up to see Ferb's leg from just below the knee being pulled away. 

He focused on opening Ferb's mouth, dribbling a small stream of glowing nanites into his mouth. It pooled in his mouth, not draining. Perry frowned, rubbing Ferb's throat, like he would on a small kitten who wasn't taking milk. It seemed to work, the liquid disappearing. He repeated the actions, dribbling nanites, then making Ferb swallow. 

He was unprepared for Ferb to suddenly cough, face contorting as he nearly came up off the table as his lungs abruptly expanded, like a blockage had been removed. The scanners lit up, red danger zone areas shifting to gold. 

"Respiratory!" Phineas cheered. "Come on, Ferb! Breathe for me, Bro!" 

Ferb did, giving a great hacking cough, turning his head to the side as he spat out what looked like bloody slivers of metal. Perry wondered if the either the large metal shard in his liver hadn't been the only puncture wound, or if it had left some smaller shards behind.

Perry chattered as Ferb wheezed for breath. "Recovery position." Phineas instructed, pushing Ferb onto his right side, bending the cybernetic leg so that his robotic foot hooked on the fleshy calf of the right leg before throwing a blanket over him. Perry moved out of the way, cradling Ferb's head. Ferb just lay there, coughing slightly, panting for breath. 

Phineas moved to Ferb's head, crouching down to look his brother in the face, fingers hovering like he was suddenly afraid to touch Ferb, lest he break. "Bro?" Phineas whispered. "Ferb-meister?" 

Ferb slowly opened his eyes, staring at Phineas, like his brother was the most amazing thing in the world. Ferb's lips twitched in a small weary smile as his metal left arm moved, reaching out and resting on Phineas' shoulder. Perry gave a sigh of relief as Phineas grinned back, reaching up and clasping his brother's hand.

"You gave us quite the scare." Phineas said, his shoulders slumping as the tense energy that had kept him up and moving suddenly faded. Ferb closed his eyes and nodded, mouthing the word 'sorry'. 

Phineas huffed. "Just don't do it again. What's going on anyway? What is this place? What is 'Prometheus'? Cause I gotta say, I don't remember building any of this, much less studying anatomy." 

Ferb wiggled, moving to sit up and Phineas immediately moved to help, the bed folding in thirds to support Ferb. Perry clung to the top part of the bed, finding himself perched just above Ferb's head. Phineas reached up, taking the glowing container of nanites from Perry and handing it to Ferb, who immediately sipped it. He cleared his throat, rubbing it slightly before speaking. 

"Candace's biggest complaint over our inventions is the potential dangers of them." Ferb said quietly, grimacing at the rough quality of his voice. He was starting to look a bit more... human. The silver of the nanites was losing the metallic sheen and becoming flesh-toned, blending into what skin was left uncovered by the blanket.

"Which is why we have multiple fail-safes put into anything we build." Phineas frowned, looking confused. "Personal anti-grav devices, emergency teleportation, flame suppressant force fields." 

Ferb nodded. Perry knew a lot of those had been put in at his own insistence. "Yes, but accidents can happen." He took another sip of nanites, which seemed to help slightly. "The Prometheus Protocol, named after Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, was put in place in case of physical injuries that would result in permanent injury or death." 

"'A Modern Prometheus'. But-" Phineas quoted, finishing the book title. He reached over, grabbing one of the screens, hitting a few keys and bringing up what looked like a list. "-This is pretty hard core! There are medical scans and stored biorhythms of every single person who has come into our back yard, including Perry! Why? Why build all this in the first place? I mean, we've never needed to use any of it." 

Phineas paused, looking around with an awkward look on his face. "... Have we?"

"Once." Ferb said quietly. "Which was why the protocol was put in place." 

Perry glanced back and forth as the brothers stared at each other, Phineas' expression crumbling into horror and incredulously as Ferb's remained placid. 

"The Haunted House last summer." Phineas murmured, the hand not holding the touchscreen gripping the front of his stripped shirt, smeared with soot and smeared blood. "It flew into the air, and I fell out. But... Isabella... the Fireside Girls, their sashes, made a net... They... They caught me." His voice didn't sound nearly as sure as it usually did. 

"I thought it kinder they remember it that way." Ferb said, looking down at his newly metal hand, flexing the smooth shiny fingers. The white nanite glow was creeping down the silver skeleton, filling in the cracks and openings, fleshing it out. "Isabella got a hug, everyone went home happy." 

"Only we didn't." Phineas whispered, turning to the screen and pressing his name on the list. A scan of Phineas' body came up, his skeleton in silver, like Ferb's new arm and leg, most of the rest of his body in white like the nanites. "I... You..." 

"Your body was fractured beyond conventional medicine." Ferb said, staring at his brother again. "So I made you a new one. Put what organs still worked in it. Brain. Heart. Spleen. Half your liver. It should be mostly regrown now." 

"Only organ that can regenerate." Phineas said, pressing under his ribcage, where the liver was, slightly distracted off topic by his love of esoteric knowledge. "Like a starfish."

"Yes." Ferb nodded, motioning to the rest of the room with a wave of his hand. "I included a small data file, the knowledge of this place and how to operate it to save a life, to be triggered in the case I should be incapacitated." 

"Incapacitated?!" Phineas' voice went up an octave at the end in disbelief as he waved the screen with his scan on it. "Ferb, you _pushed_ me out of the way of the incoming explosion! My body is mostly metal! I would have been fine!"

"Possibly." Ferb acknowledged with a tilt of his head. "But... You're my brother." 

And they would do anything, _anything_ for each other. 

Phineas stared at him, jaw agape before releasing the screen and rushing forward, wrapping his arms around Ferb's torso in a tight hug. Ferb hugged his brother back, resting his head on top of Phineas', his expression fierce. 

Perry gave a small inward sigh of relief, something in chest easing. It didn't matter what they were made of, just that everyone was alive and happy. 

Phineas made a noise that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a sob into Ferb's chest. "I thought I was some sort of monster." He confessed. "Cutting you apart like that." 

"On the contrary." Ferb motioned to the screens, where the scans of Ferb's body showed it returning to what looked like normal levels. Or at least all green-hued, as apposed to the red and oranges it had been been not ten minutes ago. If the nanites continued to work at this speed, Ferb would probably be completely fine in an hour or so, just in time for dinner. "You saved my life. Thank you." 

"Just returning the favour." Phineas pulled back just enough to look his brother in the face without releasing him and gave him a slightly shaken smile. "Although I didn't even know I was." He stared down at his hands, flexing them against Ferb's blanket covered limbs. "You did a really good job on this. Even with the x-ray specs, no one could tell I was anything other than normal." 

"That _is_ the intention." Ferb said archly, as if anything else was below his skills. Perry snorted. It had worked, almost scarily so. Even he hadn't noticed any differences. They still smelled like themselves, motor oil and confidence. And both boys had grown since then, so it was obviously more than a stop gap measure. 

"Oh yeah. And Perry helped too." Phineas added with a grin that looked much more like his usual one. "Don't forget to thank... Hey, wait." Phineas expression faded into confusion as his gaze flickered between Ferb and Perry. "But... He's a platypus. I thought they didn't do much." 

Well... Crap.

Perry quickly stared at nothing and drooled. 

-fin-


End file.
